Members of the National Organization for Women will join other Valley residents in a caravan tonight from Sylmar to Sherman Oaks to protest violence against women. The group will have its monthly vigils in both communities to draw attention to the cases of Sandra Navarez, who was allegedly kidnapped from a Sylmar Laundromat last year, and Margaret Ovuoba, a La Crescenta mother searching for her five children who she believes were abducted by an abusive ex-husband last month.

An investigator from the secretary of state's office in Sacramento has joined in a probe of possible voter registration fraud in the northeastern San Fernando Valley. Secretary of State Bill Jones announced at a news conference in Norwalk on Friday that he had sent one of his staff to help look into allegations that several noncitizens had recently signed up to vote in the 39th Assembly District, the scene of a bitterly contested primary among five Democratic candidates. "California will not accept any voter fraud or any effort at all not to follow the rules," Jones said.

The county registrar-recorder's office and the district attorney have launched an investigation into allegations of voter registration fraud in the northeast Valley after a preliminary review Wednesday discovered more than a dozen invalid registrations by noncitizens.

Just days before the election, state Sen. Richard Polanco has funneled $106,500 to bolster the state Senate campaign of Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon. The money came from the California Friends Latino Political Action Committee, controlled by Polanco, a Los Angeles Democrat who is the powerful chairman of the state's Latino legislative caucus.

No last-minute surprise political hopefuls emerged Monday as the period for candidates to file for five San Fernando Valley-based state legislative seats closed. None of the five seats--four in the state Assembly and one in the state Senate--have incumbents running; the deadline for candidates to file for seats occupied by an incumbent was Wednesday. The most crowded of the five races is the GOP primary contest for the seat now held by outgoing Assemblyman James E. Rogan (R-Glendale).

You wouldn't know from their freshly pressed clothes, well-mannered public appearances and smooth talk that mud has flown between the Democratic rivals in the 39th Assembly District race. But the outward civility is history.

Four candidates for the San Fernando Valley-based 39th Assembly District seat have accused Latino state lawmakers of rigging the state Democratic Party's endorsement of fellow candidate Tony Cardenas. Hopefuls Jim Dantona, Michael Del Rio, Jose Galvan and Valerie Salkin said Latino senators and Assembly members "stacked" the endorsement by appointing 12 pro-Cardenas delegates to the state Central Committee just days before the panel voted Sunday to make an endorsement.

In the race to succeed outgoing Assemblyman Richard Katz, political novice Tony Cardenas picked up several key endorsements Tuesday, including the backing of Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alarcon. "I can't think of an easier decision when it comes to the five candidates that are in this race than to select the only candidate who is a lifetime resident and lifetime participant in our community," Alarcon said.

Veteran campaigner and activist Jose Galvan, spurning efforts by state Sen. Richard Polanco to consolidate Latino support in the 39th Assembly District behind the candidacy of realtor Tony Cardenas, said Tuesday he will enter the race. "Nobody knows this guy Cardenas," the 52-year-old Galvan said as he announced his candidacy for the seat now held by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). "He has zero involvement in the community."

With the California primary just days away, candidates in the San Fernando Valley are unleashing a last-minute torrent of attack mail as they furiously try to portray their opponents as everything from sleazy malefactors to just plain liberals. In the 43rd Assembly District race, businessman John Geranios is being dogged by variations on the carpetbagging theme: Does he sleep at Grandma's duplex in the district or at his house just outside the district? He insists that he lives in the 43rd.